Category: York in the Media

“[Outsourcing] can provide people in developing countries with job opportunities that might not otherwise have been available,” wrote Paul Klein, member of the Schulich School of Business Advisory Council of the Centre of Excellence in Responsible Business, in the Guardian. “And, those with low incomes in developed countries can, as Walmart claims, ‘save money and live better’ by accessing goods at lower costs as a result of outsourced operations.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is making discouragingly little headway with muted expressions of diplomatic “concern” about the fate of emergency room physician Dr. Tarek Loubani and York film Professor John Greyson, two Canadians who have been languishing for weeks in an Egyptian jail without explanation or charge, reported the Toronto Star.

An Egyptian prosecutor has ordered York University film Professor John Greyson and his travelling companion Dr. Tarek Loubani to spend at least another 15 days behind bars in Cairo, reported the Toronto Star.

“In graduate programs across Canada, students at the Master’s and PhD levels face a range of experiences and (mixed) feelings as they contemplate the beginning of the semester,” wrote York University PhD candidate Melonie Fullick in The Globe and Mail.

“The diversity of our students has definitely grown, so if you’re hiring teachers who graduated a few years ago and have been occasional teachers for a longer time, they may not be as diverse a group,” said Ron Owston, dean of York University’s Faculty of Education, in the Toronto Star. He believes boards can avoid nepotism better by using standard hiring processes than with the “heavy-handed” tool of seniority.

On Tuesday, filmmakers Alex Gibney, Atom Egoyan and Sarah Polley joined writer Michael Ondaatje and others at the Toronto International Film Festival in a public demand that Egyptian authorities free York University Professor John Greyson and Western University Professor Tarek Loubani who have been held without formal charges in Cairo since Aug. 16, reported the New York Times.

A recent York University study found that university medical faculty receiving consulting or speaking fees, gifts, drug samples or other handouts from drug companies can affect the quality of education that professors deliver, reported the National Post.

York University Professor Joel Lexchin says the birth control recalls point to a broader issue. “For economic reasons, most of the drugs sold in North America are manufactured in part or total in low-cost countries, where there are thousands of plants,” he said in the Toronto Star. “That doesn’t mean the companies want substandard products. But when economics is the bottom line, that is sometimes the consequence.”

York University religious studies Professor Aviva Goldberg says the ordination of women rabbis reflects gains in equality for women in all areas of Western life. “Traditionally, rabbinic law limited the ritual and leadership roles of women,” she said in the Toronto Star.

When York University begins advertising to hire new professors this fall, the job descriptions will have an important distinction: The new hires will focus on teaching, and will not be required to do research like their colleagues, reported The Globe and Mail.